Media Freaks After Trump Decreases National Debt by $12 Billion

President Trump has done what has seemed like an impossible task for recent administrations, and that is to actually curb government spending and reduce the national debt by $12 Billion during his first month in office.

Trump announced his achievement of reducing the national debt by sending out a tweet, which quickly caused the media to scramble for stories that could diminish this financial victory.

The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo.

The day before Trump was sworn into office, January 20, 2017, the national debt was $19,947 billion. A month later on February 21, 2017, the US debt was reduced to $19,935 billion, a decrease of roughly $12 billion. Although the number doesn’t look like it’s moved that much, when you’re dealing in the trillions of dollars a few billion or so can seem like a deceptively low amount.

The following chart comes directly from the Treasury Department’s “Treasury Direct” website, which is run by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service, and with a date range of January 23, 2017 to February 23, 2017.

As the above chart indicates, the national debt started decreasing only days after Donald Trump took office in the end of January. The $19,935 billion total comes from the date of 2/21/17, but you can see as of 2/23/17 the debt is actually lower and is now at $19,913 billion.

Compared to the Obama administration’s handling of the national debt, any decrease is a welcome achievement.

The typical mainstream media suspects were quick to diminish Trump’s announcement on reducing the national debt, which is extraordinary given that the nation’s deficit had nearly doubled under Obama’s administration. During the 8 years that Barack Obama managed the country, the national debt increased from $10.6 trillion to $19.7 trillion as of October of last year.

Needless to say, the media couldn’t possible remain silent while the president takes credit for his achievements, as they released a slew of attack articles on Trump’s tweet.

Even the publication Teen Vogue, which really has no place reporting on politics, released a story in attempt to malign Trump’s statement titled “Donald Trump Falsely Takes Credit For Decrease In National Debt”.

Besides the fact that the national debt has decreased significantly for the first time in quite a while, the media’s reaction to Trump’s tweet shows a level of aggression, opposition and hatred for a president whose policies revolve around the positive slogan “Make America Great Again”.

So how can the media be baffled as to why Trump said, “fake media is the enemy of the American people”, and they are referred to as the “opposition party” by conservatives? When their main objective seems to be destroying the current administration, rather than reporting real news and letting the country decide on how to interpret it, is it any wonder that American’s trust in the media sank to new lows in 2016, with only 32% saying they have a “great deal” of faith in the validity of their reports.

Although the mainstream media will only release negative spin articles
regarding Trump’s reduction of the debt, the alternative news (which is rapidly
replacing the mainstream) will deliver the good news to the American people.

Dennis F

Don’t be so sure of that !!!

CheeMiss

Great Article! Thank you. I’ve passed it around.

Ahrvincent

Let me tell you…. If this continues, the Democrat Party will be Toast for 25 years. All this nonsense about that they are afraid of Trump. Bull Shrimp…. They are not afraid of any bad things that they say he will do. They are afraid of Trumps Success. Because, yes…. The Democrat Party and their agenda will be gone for 25… Yes… 25 years..

Are we to assume the rate of government spending, its annual deficit, also went down in that same month as the national debt?

James

That is the assumption they want you to make- but it would be 100% wrong

Justme

God Bless Trump, a breath of fresh air. Finally, America can breath.

Dennis F

I keep a spreadsheet that I use to keep track of the daily debt. It goes back to Jan 1993. I also have graphs of the debt, showing the daily annualized rate of increase in the debt for approx 1-year, 6-month, 3-month and 1-month periods (its approximate because figures are not released on weekends or holidays).

If you look at the data covering that 24-year period, you will find that the debt generally goes up more quickly at the end of each quarter, compared to the general trend for the year in question.. This is followed by a period where the debt remains comparatively stable for a short period.

There is another rise and fall cycle that is also quite obvious. That cycle is related to the filing of Federal Income Taxes. Usually, from about late January untill about the middle of April, the debt goes up. This is due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of the people who file during this early period are getting refunds. People who owe taxes generally wait as long as they can before filing. Because of that, the IRS is shows a net outflow of money from about the end of January until the middle of April, and then a net inflow for a month or so after the middle of April.

Because of a the ‘Path Act’ a law passed and signed in December of 2015, the IRS is required to delay the refund (beginning this year) for any return where the taxpayer even qualifies for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This delay will allow the IRS to scrutinize those returns more closely for fraud.

Keep an eye on the debt between now and April 15. The debt will rise as it usually does between now and then. It has already risen more than $29 Billion in just the couple of days (2/28 vs 2/24) since Trump prematurely tweeted.

With respect to the comparison that Trump made concerning the decrease in the debt during the first month of his administaration, and the $200 Billion increase during the first month of the Obama administration, I can provide the following:

In the last six months of the Obama administration, the Debt grew from about $19391 Billion (7/20/2016) to about $19947 Billion (1/20/2017). That was an increase of $556 Billion (about a 2.87% increase in six months). During the last six months of the Bush administration, the debt rose from about $9520 Billion (7/21/2008) to about $10626 Billion (1/20/2009). That was an increase in the debt of $1106 Billion (about 11.6% increase in six months).

James

Wow – 3 lies in the first sentence alone – that is quite an effort – even the Donald himself would be impressed.
1. There have been many short periods in the last few administrations where debt levels have been reduced.
2. Trump has had zero impact on spending so far
3. There has been no reduction in spending.
In the same period Trump is bragging about having reduced the debt by 12bn cash reserves have been run down by over 100bn.
To the idiots who think this is some sort of accomplishment – if on Monday you owe 20k on your credit card and have $500 in your wallet, then on Friday you owe $19,988 on your credit card and have $400 in your wallet – do you really believe your financial position has improved?

Dennis F

Very good point. The closing US Treasury’s ‘Operating Cash Balance’ (OCB) for 1/20/2017 was $382,078 Million. The closing OCB for 3/2/2017 was $108,983 Million. The difference is $273,429 Million. That is a cash net loss in the OCB of over $273 Billion since Trump took office.

The National Debt fell by about $52,346 Million during the same period. Accordingly, when the OCB is taken into account, that means that the US Treasury suffered a net loss of over $221 Billion since Trump took office.